The Charlotte Hornets are coming off yet another pedestrian season in which they won 39 games and missed the playoffs, marking their third straight year without a playoff appearance.
The Hornets then went into the offseason with a huge decision to make on Kemba Walker, who was set to be a free agent. Charlotte ended up making a lowball offer to Walker, and Walker would proceed to sign with the Boston Celtics.
In order to “replace” Walker, the Hornets swung a sign-and-trade deal with the Celtics to acquire Terry Rozier.
That has basically been the extent of Charlotte's summer.
So, here are the three biggest takeaways of the offseason for the Hornets:
3. They Had No Choice
You can rip Michael Jordan and Co. for not offering Walker the full max all you want, but the fact of the matter is that they really didn't have much of a choice in the matter.
The Hornets have zero cap space and have been saddled with bad contracts for several years, so giving a 29-year-old point guard a max deal would have only further exacerbated the problem.
Charlotte was never going to win with Walker, so letting him walk really was the only thing it could have realistically done.
Of course, we can pin the blame on all of the other horrific decisions the Hornets have made over the years that led them into this ditch, but in order for them to begin trying to climb out of it, they had to part ways with Walker.
2. They Haven't Learned
While the Hornets did make the right decision in not re-signing Walker, they nullified it by giving Rozier a three-year, $58 million deal.
Outside of his one impressive playoff run in 2018, Rozier has been largely uninspiring since entering the NBA in 2015, failing to shoot 40 percent at any point of his career. Not only that, but he is wildly inconsistent on both ends of the floor.
He certainly has talent and has shown he can carry a team for stretches, but his volatility makes him more of a $10 million a year player rather than a $20 million a year guy, the latter of which is basically what Charlotte is going to be paying him.
Yet again, the Hornets are handicapping themselves with another bad deal that may come back to bite them in another year or two.
1. No. 1 Pick, Here they Come
The Hornets will unquestionably be one of the worst teams in basketball next season, and there is actually a decent chance that they will literally be the worst.
And you know what? That would be the best thing that could happen to Charlotte, as this is a franchise that needs a top draft pick in the worst way.
Now, the Hornets don't exactly have a great history of making good use of lottery picks, but you have to figure that the higher the pick gets, the more the chances of them completely blowing it decrease.
Charlotte's 2019-20 starting lineup may very well look something like Cody Zeller, Marvin Williams, Miles Bridges, Nicolas Batum and Rozier, so yeah. This team is going to be bad.
Follow Us
Subscribe